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A supply rocket carrying cargo and experiments to the ISS exploded shortly after liftoff. NASA and Orbital Sciences (the company operating the rocket) have not released any information about what may have caused the incident, pending further investigation.
The mission was unmanned, and all personnel are safe and accounted for. The extent of the damage to the launch facility has not yet been determined.
Phil Plait, author of the Bad Astronomy blog speculates that the 60s-70s era refurbished Russian engines the vehicle used will come under heavy scrutiny.
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ISS Resupply Rocket Explodes Shortly after Launch
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ANN JILLIAN'S HAIR makes LONI ANDERSON'S HAIR look like RICARDO
MONTALBAN'S HAIR!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday October 29 2014, @12:42PM
I watched a couple crude youtube videos, a couple observations:
Looked normal until it didn't. Not like thrust slowly dropped or navigation went nuts.
When it didn't look normal there was no side thrust, or at least not enough to matter. Stack didn't crumple/buckle in midair or deviate much at all. Just like flipping a switch off it fell right back down.
When it went weird the flame went dark and long so obviously the fuel turbopumps were still running. First impression, massive oxidizer pump failure. So the flame changes from cutting torch to flame thrower and you end up with about zero thrust.
The announcer muttered something about peak engine thrust of a hundred and something percent has been achieved right about as it blew up. My guess is peak oxidizer turbopump RPM was achieved an instant before it blew apart. Random FOD stuff in the tanks or oil contamination of the oxidizer system would blow the thing up much later or earlier in the launch. So I'm pretty confident an oxidizer pump popped.
The cruddy audio on the cruddy youtube videos are notoriously bad, but it sounds like the engine suddenly changed around the time oxidizer flow stopped, got a little quieter, until the "landing" which nearly knocked some viewers off their feet when the sound reached them.
They aren't going to be launching from that pad for awhile. Maybe ever. Probably cheaper to build another pad than to patch that thing up and safety rate it. I suppose more pix will be released, but last night it was looking pretty bad.
Anyone else observe anything interesting?
(Score: 5, Funny) by Marneus68 on Wednesday October 29 2014, @12:48PM
With Kerbal Space Program, everyone's a Rocket expert now.
I can tell you what went wrong: needs moar boosters !
(Score: 2) by sudo rm -rf on Wednesday October 29 2014, @01:23PM
Nah, looks like physical time acceleration went nuts again. This, or staging was set up wrongly. Again. Arrggh!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday October 29 2014, @02:45PM
With Kerbal Space Program, everyone's a Rocket expert now.
Well, I gather the point of KSP is not just to have fun, but also educate people about how rockets work. A KSP player isn't a "Rocket expert", but they probably have as a result a better idea of how rockets work than most people who haven't played the game. As to the grandparent post, his opinions were backed by observation.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday October 29 2014, @05:03PM
Right on! I use Dwarf Fortress to as model for how to interact with other people.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Wednesday October 29 2014, @05:37PM
Actually, I'm pretty sure Toady is planning to put rocket physics and materials into DF, just in case anyone wants to build a Dorf-crewed, lava-powered spaceship.
He will then go on and hand-craft an entire galaxy of planets, moons, stars and such to explore.
(Score: 2) by clone141166 on Wednesday October 29 2014, @10:29PM
If KSP has taught us anything then it is that the spontaneous combustion of rockets is caused by the Space Kraken!
(Score: 4, Informative) by Bill, Shooter Of Bul on Wednesday October 29 2014, @01:25PM
As far as I could tell, the Rocket was supposed to go to space. But instead, it exploded. I think that's where they went wrong.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Leebert on Wednesday October 29 2014, @02:52PM
You would be amazing at "color commentary" for American football television broadcasts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 29 2014, @03:22PM
They shouldn't have gone with the rockets expert who listed "4th of July" on his resume.